Chapter 72: Tier 6
"The hardworking ones mostly push through the latter quicker, whereas the clever ones focus on the former from the get-go."
Once again, Ember jumped to his feet and charged at her, brandishing his fist. Mana surged through his channels as he ran mana augmentation to its limits, empowering his body. Not that it made that big a difference. Once again, Dawn tossed him into the air, a yawn escaping her lips.
"You would want to be a smarter worker, one who focuses on both. Lord forbid, there's already an epidemic of them, even in the Songrise Academy."
Re-establishing his dominion over Mana Augmentation and Blitz Steps, Ember bolted towards her. This time he decided to dodge the first attack she hurled at him. Unperturbed, she merely rushed him, weaving Kinetic Push from both directions before wedging him between them. For a moment, it was as if he was in a meat grinder. Of course, he didn't attempt to sling any spell of his own, as that would be counterproductive.
Dawn was teaching him how to develop his skills, after all. Although she might be having too much fun with it, he believed dividing his focus any more would only exhaust him quicker. He merely needed one level in one of his iron skills to finish this masochistic training.
"You can try weaving too, if you like," she offered. "It's a new skill; there's a greater chance you will improve in it too."
Of course, Ember was weaving, though most of it was spent internally. On one side, he was weaving his mana to have a better effect on mana augmentation. On the other hand, he was still attempting to learn Haste. The two activities were already testing his mental fortitude to the brink of collapsing.
"Oh, that reminds me, I have a theory about two of your skills that you unconsciously accepted."
Dawn varied her attacks by adding a deluge of elementary mana bolts into the mix. He didn't evade them all. With his hunter's gear removed from his body, Ember took a few of the attacks head-on as patches of angry bruises marred his back and torso. Following her tips, he had easily grasped the internals of mana augmentation. All he lacked were some external factors to pin in gains.